11
Survival on the Eleventh Day: Even Celestial Dragons Are Just Setting Up…
Chapter 11: Survival Day Eleven – Even Celestial Dragons Are Just…
Survival Day Eleven:
Corazon wasn’t actually mute; he was pretending to be unable to speak for his undercover mission, further enabled by having consumed the Silence Fruit.
At this moment, he felt an uncomfortable tightness in his chest.
Watching Wendy cheerfully and earnestly introduce her “sister,” his gaze grew somewhat unsettled.
“This is my sister, Abigail Carter… though according to your customs, it should be Carter Abigail.”
After the introduction, Wendy took out flower petals and stood beside a beautiful, small blue triangular decorative structure adorned with entwining vines. She placed the petals into the ceramic jar beneath this triangular cabin.
Corazon saw that the moment Wendy placed the petals inside, both the roof and base of the triangular cabin sprouted blooming flowers. Complemented by the blue vines, the flowers even took the shape of colorful seashells.
Sensing Corazon’s gaze, Wendy explained from where she stood, “This is my sister Abigail’s ash can.”
Corazon’s pupils dilated in shock, and he hesitantly looked away—this type of structure wasn’t unique to this spot; he had noticed at least three similar ones throughout the area as he walked… Were these all ash cans?! And were the ashes divided among them?!
If he had asked, Wendy would have truthfully told him—it was because this item conveniently restored sanity.
The [Sisters’ Ash Can] granted a buff that restored 25 sanity points per minute when nearby, while also reducing Abigail’s upgrade time to a quarter of the original.
She made multiple ones simply because she had obtained skins for the ash can and found them aesthetically pleasing, so she wanted to create several to display different skins.
For instance, the one Corazon saw at the entrance had the [Seaside Cabin] skin; the one in Wendy’s room featured the [Bird’s Nest] skin.
As for why no one stopped her, they simply thought it was a decorative item—it looked nice, and Wendy enjoyed building peculiar little things, so they were used to it… After all, who would have imagined that these mass-produced, pretty little urns contained the ashes of her deceased sister.
—If the ash cans were enshrined in batches, did that mean her sister’s ashes were divided and displayed separately?! Was that like dismembering her in ash form? What kind of devilish operation was this?!
Corazon couldn’t speak, so he could only silently reel in shock.
He found it incredibly difficult to judge what kind of person Wendy truly was.
If you called her a bad kid, she was so attached to her deceased sister and seemed quite polite;
If you called her a good kid, she associated with Doflamingo and enshrined her sister in the most bizarre way.
Unaware that her simple daily actions had thoroughly frightened the new member, Wendy happily took petals to refresh several ash cans, then gave Corazon a backpack before grabbing her Ram’s Head Walking Stick to wander around.
She would give every person who joined the Donquixote Family an 8-slot backpack. This was also Doflamingo’s requirement, because among Wendy’s various wondrous items, the backpack was the most practical—everyone could use it. Although it could only hold eight items, they could be stacked, and no matter how many things were placed inside, it only weighed as much as a single backpack when carried.
It was like a limited, simplified version of an Interdimensional Pocket.
As for her daily routine… she would cook, then take inventory of supplies, stockpile resources, unlock new technologies, and occasionally go out to fight monsters. Normally, she would also stay home reading books and newspapers.
Because Doflamingo forbade her from farming, there were many things she couldn’t do, which was a pity. She decided her next companion would have to be someone who could farm with her.
Wendy opened her system panel and checked the map.
The area she had explored wasn’t large. Apart from the Goa Kingdom where her Spawn Point was located being fully revealed, she had only uncovered the Marine Base and Loguetown. After being brought to the North Sea by Doflamingo, she had expanded her exploration to quite a bit of land and sea areas.
But compared to the entire world map, this seemed like just the tip of the iceberg.
This world map generation is really huge… as expected of a holographic game.—Wendy marveled inwardly.
“I wonder where Dragon is now…” Wendy gazed into the distance, murmuring softly, missing her first companion.
Given Dragon’s ambition to see the world, he must have uncovered a lot of the map by now? She really wanted to meet him and obtain his map…
The multiplayer version of Starvation was a cooperative game. The maps explored by companions could be shared with other companions by creating map scrolls at the Cartography Table. After learning them, the maps could be shared.
Wendy knew she wasn’t very good at exploring maps, so she placed high hopes on her companions.
Last time she met Dragon in Loguetown, they didn’t share maps simply because they lacked materials and couldn’t make the scrolls… Later, after joining the Donquixote Family, when Doflamingo heard Wendy wanted to “share maps,” he refused her.
His expression had been quite unpleasant at the time, and Wendy wisely didn’t press further.
She felt this might be related to some plotline that needed to be unlocked at a certain stage before it could be discussed.
As for others… Wendy hadn’t given anyone the Telltale Heart to establish a companion relationship, so naturally, she couldn’t share maps with them either.
Although making the Telltale Heart was quite simple, and any Devil Fruit user could be a candidate for companionship, her gaming experience told her that when it came to companions, it was better to have none than make poor choices.
“But Corazon should be acceptable, right? As another one of Doffy’s brothers, he must have traveled similar paths… Even though he doesn’t have a Devil Fruit now, all of Doffy’s subordinates received one, so Doffy will definitely give him one eventually…” Wendy tilted her head and murmured, making a firm decision, “When the time comes, I won’t tell him it’s for sharing maps—I’ll just have him draw directly on the map scroll!”
She had almost gathered all her materials and unlocked most of her skills. She had heard Doflamingo mention that their future base would be in a kingdom called “Dressrosa,” where she could build her home, establish a stable stronghold, and eventually set sail to explore new maps on her own!
After all, she still had some special skills that required collecting unique materials from specific regions to unlock. She wanted to ask Dragon for his map to see if she could locate those special areas.
“Hmm… I suppose I could take a look at a regular map too? I wonder if I can read it…” Wendy pondered, then hurried off to find a map.
And it was during this search that, while sifting through a pile of ordinary maps, she stumbled upon a special one—【Doflamingo’s Crafted Map Scroll】.
Wendy’s eyes widened in surprise. But after a moment, her expression shifted to one of realization.
Because she crafted items extremely quickly—needing only a few seconds once materials were ready—she handled all the production tasks, effectively serving as the Donquixote Family’s primary logistics support.
Nearby stood the Cartography Table she had made, crafted simply with a compass and wooden planks. At the time, she had also used a quill and papyrus to produce a stack of blank map scrolls, which she left there.
If anyone else used them, they would remain ordinary cartography tables and blank maps.
But if Doflamingo used them… because he was bound as her companion, any map scroll he utilized on that table would automatically generate a chart of all the locations he had ever visited in his life.
There was no outward indication of this, so Doflamingo himself was unaware of the automatic generation.
Thrilled to have obtained the map effortlessly, Wendy happily held the scroll and chose to “read” it. The scroll vanished from her hands, and when she opened her system map, she was satisfied to see numerous previously unknown areas suddenly illuminated.
“Doffy has been to quite a few places…” Wendy zoomed in on the map, examining locations she hadn’t visited, and felt a surge of anticipation for her upcoming sea voyages.
Among all these spots, she also noticed one region whose thumbnail looked distinctly different from the others—Mary Geoise.
“Mary Geoise? So Doffy has been there…” Wendy’s face showed a hint of confusion as she strained to recall, furrowing her brow with a puzzled tone. “Isn’t that where the Celestial Dragons reside?”
Having been in this world for so long and being an avid reader of newspapers and books, Wendy had a decent grasp of its general structure, even if she focused on her own tasks. The world nobles, the top-tier privileged class known as the Celestial Dragons, were an unavoidable part of that knowledge.
Yet, despite knowing this, Wendy didn’t consider the Celestial Dragons particularly special. In her view, she was the world’s number one, the supreme being above even the Celestial Dragons—she was the only player! Everyone else was merely part of her gameplay! Roughly speaking, they were all her toys!
Even the Celestial Dragons were just another element in the setup, a part of her playthrough!
Holding onto this doubt, when she saw Corazon entering the chart room, she directly asked: “Corazon, you’re Doffy’s younger brother, right? Have you been to Mary Geoise? Is Doffy actually a Celestial Dragon?”
Corazon’s footsteps halted abruptly. He froze in place, his body stiffening, his pupils contracting sharply in an instant.
“Ah, I almost forgot you can’t speak… Never mind, I’ll go ask Doffy!” Wendy threw the useless map scroll in her hand onto the ground, grabbed her Walking Stick, and was about to rush out.
However, as she passed by Corazon, he stopped her.
Corazon’s hand pressed on her shoulder, his grave expression filled with struggle. After a long silence, the hesitation on his face gradually faded, and he slowly spoke: “You can’t ask Doffy that question… Also, Wendy, how did you know?”
“Because of the map,” Wendy answered truthfully. Then, after a few seconds, she widened her eyes in surprise. “Corazon, you can speak!”